BOOK LAUNCH: THOMAS FRANK

March 14, 2016

6:00 pm–8:00 pm

Public Books Office

20 Cooper Square, 503

New York, New York

The Institute for Public Knowledge and Public Books invite you to join us for the launch of Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? with the author, Thomas Frank. From the bestselling author of What’s the Matter With Kansas comes a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics – a book that asks: what’s the matter with Democrats?

It is a widespread belief among liberals that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if only those awful Republicans are beaten into submission, the country will be on the right course.

But this is to fundamentally misunderstand the modern Democratic Party. Drawing on years of research and first-hand reporting, author Thomas Frank points out that the Democrats have done little to advance traditional liberal goals: expanding opportunity, fighting for social justice, and ensuring that workers get a fair deal. Indeed, they have scarcely dented the free-market consensus at all. This is not for lack of opportunity: Democrats have occupied the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-four years, and yet the decline of the middle class has only accelerated. Wall Street gets its bailouts, wages keep falling, and the free-trade deals keep coming.

With his trademark sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party’s philosophy and how it has changed over the years. A form of corporate and cultural elitism has largely eclipsed the party’s old working-class commitment, he finds. For certain favored groups, this has meant prosperity. But for the nation as a whole, it is a one-way ticket into the abyss of inequality. In this critical election year, Frank recalls the Democrats to their historic goals-the only way to reverse the ever-deepening rift between the rich and the poor in America.

Thomas Frank is an American political analyst, historian, journalist and columnist. He is the author of numerous books, including Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What’s the Matter with Kansas? His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s, Salon, and The Baffler, of which he is a founding editor.